The Ministry of Healthcare should guarantee friendly attitude towards mother and children in the maternity ward
On April 28th 2015 the National Network for Children sent to the Ministry of healthcare its statement on early care for mothers and their babies. We declare our willingness to support the family of the newborn baby, victim of violence in SofiaMed hospital and to defend their and every other active position to prevent such behavior towards other babies and children.
For many years we advocate to turn mother and childcare into a priority and we insist on changing some of the currently existing cares and practices before and after the birth of a child. Separation of mothers and babies, insufficient support of breastfeeding, non-admission of an attendant in the delivery room or allowing its presence only after payment of a certain fee and other practices have negative effect on mother and its baby and we insist on their suspension.
National Network for Children also advocated for the recruitment of a social worker and/or psychologist in every maternity ward in the country to help the prevention of children abandon and to raise the awareness of the family how to take appropriate care of their child. These experts will improve the communication with parents about procedures which are performed on babies and children and also about the patient’s informed consent– to be sure what interventions are executed for the treatment and what are the alternatives.
The Safe and friendly environment in the hospitals is not only a result of well-prepared, trained and supported specialists, but also from the essential change in the policy and procedures of every single hospital and different attitude towards children and parents as holders of human rights.
We welcome the formation of a National coordination council for mother and child healthcare. At the same time we consider as a serious problem the lack of special department for mother and child healthcare in the Ministry of healthcare and the extremely difficult admission and participation of non-government organizations (except for the patients organizations and nationally representative organizations) in working groups for consultations on healthcare policies for mothers and children.
In its regular report “Report Card 2015: What is the average score of State’s care for children?” National Network for Children presented for the first time a list of 10 tangible subjects which represent 10 possible solutions to 10 unsolved problems. Two of them concern healthcare and the recommendations are:
- To guarantee mother and child friendly healthcare system;
- To develop purposeful state policy on investing and keeping in Bulgaria healthcare specialist, graduated in key specialties for children health and welfare as Pediatrics, Children psychology etc.
Key aspects of change in the field of mother and child healthcare are the need of clear responsibility – who are the people, who are in charge of this change and changes of policies and procedures in every single hospital to guarantee safe and friendly environment for children and their parents.
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